Here are some of the trends we're seeing for consumers in the year ahead:

Purpose-driven shopping: Consumers increasingly support brands that align with their values like sustainability and social responsibility. Brands need to focus on driving impact, not just profits.

Mobile shopping: Phones are used throughout the shopping journey. Brands must optimize sites for mobile and leverage messaging apps for commerce.

Curated simplicity: Consumers are overwhelmed by choices and gravitate to curated selections that simplify options. Brands that curate products can connect better.

Local shopping: Consumers like to support small, local businesses that feel authentic. Local SEO and community engagement help attract nearby customers.

Experience preference: Customers prefer to spend on experiences and make purchases that lead to moments of joy. Brands should highlight the positive experiences they offer.

The Evolving Role of AI: Consumers are becoming more comfortable with AI-powered experiences, like chatbots and personalized recommendations. Explore the potential of AI to enhance customer service, personalize marketing campaigns, and improve product recommendations.

Data Privacy Concerns: Consumers are becoming more aware of data privacy issues and are seeking greater control over their personal information. Be transparent about your data practices, obtain explicit consent for data collection and use, and prioritize data security measures.

Convenience Reigns Supreme: Consumers crave fast, easy, and seamless experiences across all touchpoints, from online shopping to mobile banking. Streamline your customer journey, offer multiple payment options, and prioritize mobile-first design and functionality.

The Rise of Sustainability: Consumers are demanding more eco-friendly and ethically sourced products from brands they trust. Implement sustainable practices throughout your operations, communicate your commitment to environmental and social responsibility, and offer transparent information about product origins and materials.

Omnichannel Experiences: Consumers value omnichannel experiences that seamlessly integrate online and in-store shopping. Marketers should develop strategies that connect online and offline experiences to retain customers and enhance brand loyalty.

Search Marketing

Big changes ahead, for both SEO and PPC. Here are just some of them:

Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE): This is an imminent AI-powered earthquake poised to reshape the SEO landscape. While traditional ranking factors still hold some sway, the SGE curates entirely new result sets for a staggering 33% of search queries, often bypassing even the top 10 organic listings. This means meticulously crafted content and link-building strategies could be rendered obsolete in the face of Google's algorithmic oracle.

The heart of the issue lies in SGE's opaque selection process. Unlike traditional ranking based on backlinks and keywords, the AI's criteria remain shrouded in mystery. This presents a formidable challenge: how do we optimize for an algorithm we don't understand?

While the answer remains elusive, the call to action is clear: we must adapt. Marketers need to shift their focus beyond traditional SEO tactics and embrace a more holistic approach that prioritizes user intent, content quality, and relevance across all touchpoints. The future of SEO lies not in manipulating algorithms, but in understanding and exceeding user expectations in a dynamic, AI-driven search landscape.

Google Ads' new "Conversational Experience": This is a gamechanger, an AI-powered tool poised to transform campaign creation. It’s a tool you engage with that will help you optimize search campaigns by more easily generating the text and assets you’ll need. Imagine an interactive assistant brainstorming ad copy, suggesting relevant keywords, and crafting captivating visuals.

How does it work? Just enter the URL of your preferred landing page. Google AI will automatically generate a short description of your business which you can edit. Next, Google AI will suggest relevant and effective keywords, headlines, descriptions, images, and sitelinks for your campaign.

It's currently been rolled out to the US and the UK, and is expected to be available in New Zealand in the first few months of 2024.

What else will matter in Search in 2024?

Voice search optimization: Optimizing for voice search will become even more important as people increasingly use voice assistants and smart speakers. Brands need to focus on natural language and conversational queries.

Personalization: Search engines are getting better at understanding user context and intent. Search marketing will focus more on personalized and localized results.

Video SEO - Optimizing videos for search continues to grow in importance, including use of transcripts, titles, descriptions and tags.

Evolving Search Intent: Search engines are getting better at understanding user intent behind queries. Focus on creating content that directly answers users' questions and provides the information they seek.

Focus on User Experience (UX): Search engines prioritize websites with positive user experience. Ensure your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate for better search ranking and user engagement.

The Power of Featured Snippets: Appearing in featured snippets (answer boxes) on search engine results pages (SERPs) can significantly boost organic traffic. Optimize your content for concise answers, relevant keywords, and structured data markup.

Social Media Marketing

Here are some key Social Media Marketing trends for 2024:

The Rise & Rise of Micro-Content: With an overwhelming amount of content vying for limited attention, shorter formats like brief videos, succinct texts, and quick stories will dominate. Marketers should focus on creating short, impactful content that can quickly engage and deliver value to the audience. This brevity aligns with the reduced attention spans and busy lifestyles of modern consumers.

Ephemeral: The average TikTok viral trend lasts around three days.This trend is expanding to other social networks, where a viral dance, song, meme, activity or movement will be born, live and die in the space of 72 hours. To stay current and on trend, marketers need to track, conceptualise and execute creative that embraces the latest viral trend within 24 hours.

Authenticity vs. AI: There's an ongoing battle between maintaining authenticity and leveraging AI in content creation. Brands are encouraged to experiment with AI for brainstorming and ideation, while also focusing on authenticity to build trust.

Investment in 'Dark Social': Brands are starting to recognize the importance of 'dark social' platforms  (messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, etc.), which are not traditionally monitored like public social networks. The trend suggests a significant portion of traffic may be coming from these sources, and brands should consider strategies like trackable links and private social communities.

Shift from Engagement/Traffic to Awareness/Discovery: Traditional social media metrics like engagement and traffic are giving way to a focus on awareness and discovery. Brands are advised to revisit their analytics and consider setting discovery goals for 2024.

Entertain, Then Educate: Current strategies for educating through social media are losing effectiveness. Brands are advised to find more creative, entertaining ways to grab attention before pivoting to educational content.

Long-Form Content: Despite assumptions to the contrary, long-form content is thriving. Brands are encouraged to think more like creators, focusing on storytelling, community engagement, and a strong visual identity.

Focus on Comments: Comments are becoming a critical part of social media strategy again. Brands should commit to acknowledging and responding to comments, reading them thoroughly, and using them as inspiration for additional content and customer engagement.

Channel Hyper-Focus: This trend emphasizes prioritizing specific social media channels that align with your goals, rather than spreading efforts thinly across many platforms. It involves evaluating the effectiveness of each channel in contributing towards your goals and considering the sunset of less effective ones.

Niche Communities and Micro-Influencers: Businesses will collaborate with micro-influencers within specific niches to create authentic and genuine engagement, building trust and loyalty among a dedicated audience.

YouTube Shorts: While growing rapidly, YouTube Shorts should be seen as a channel for experimentation and repurposing content rather than a primary strategy. Brands should consider integrating Shorts with existing YouTube content and including them in collaborations with creators.

The X Void: With the reduced influence of X (RIP Twitter), no single platform has filled its space. This trend suggests brands reassess their Twitter strategy and consider reserving handles on emerging platforms while increasing listening efforts on others like TikTok.

LinkedIn Personalization: LinkedIn is becoming more personal, with users sharing a wider variety of content on the platform. This shift is attributed to less activity on other networks like Facebook and X, and the rise of remote work post-pandemic, leading to more authenticity and transparency online.

Online Video

Here are some key trends for online video marketing in 2024:

Short-Form Video Reigns Supreme: It's not exactly new news, but platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are booming, with short-form video content offering high engagement and ROI. Marketers need to embrace short-form storytelling, prioritize mobile-first formats, and experiment with trending sounds and challenges.

The Rise of Silent Videos: With increased mobile viewing and sound-off preferences, silent videos are gaining traction, requiring strong visuals and impactful storytelling. You should focus on clear visuals, compelling captions, and on-screen text to convey your message effectively without audio.

Live Shopping Takes Center Stage: Interactive live shopping experiences on platforms like TikTok and Instagram are driving sales and engagement, blurring the lines between commerce and entertainment. Partner with influencers for live shopping events, showcase products in real-time, and offer exclusive deals to incentivize live viewers.

More Use of AI Tools and Tricks: AI is increasingly being used in video marketing for productivity and creativity. AI-powered tools are making video editing, scriptwriting, and content generation more accessible and efficient for marketers with limited resources. Marketers should explore and integrate AI tools into their video marketing strategies to streamline production and enhance creativity.

5. User-Generated Content (UGC) Gains Trust: Consumers increasingly trust authentic user-created content over traditional marketing messages. Develop UGC campaigns, collaborate with micro-influencers, and provide clear guidelines for user-generated content creation.

Accessibility and Inclusivity in Video Content: Creating accessible video content with captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions is becoming increasingly important. Make accessibility a priority when creating video content. This broadens your audience reach, demonstrates social responsibility, and improves brand perception.

Vertical-First Video Content: With the rise of mobile viewing, vertical video formats optimized for smartphones are becoming increasingly popular. Adapt video production and editing to create vertical-first content for platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. Ensure your videos are visually engaging and optimized for mobile viewing.

More Real People on Camera: Brands are expected to feature more real people, like company employees and partners, in their videos to create a sense of connection and trust. Marketers should leverage the authenticity of real people, including company executives and staff, in their video content to build brand affinity and trust.

Product Videos Becoming More Prevalent: There is a growing trend towards using videos for product documentation and demonstrations, replacing traditional written help docs. Marketers, especially in software and direct-to-consumer businesses, should focus on creating product videos and GIFs to showcase their offerings more effectively.

Videos in Newsletter and Email Creative: Videos are being increasingly included in newsletters and emails, offering a more engaging way to communicate with audiences. Marketers should consider incorporating short, informative videos in their email marketing strategies to enhance engagement and customer experience.

Fewer Videos in Search Results: Google has reduced the number of video thumbnails in search results, particularly for videos that are not the main content of a page. Marketers need to ensure their main videos are correctly featured and optimized for SEO, as peripheral video content may not rank as effectively.

ABOUT THE MARKETING TRENDS WORKSHOPS

Oh, in case you’re wondering who we are to be preparing these analyses:  the NZ MARKETING INSIGHTS & TRENDS FOR 2024 workshop has been prepared (like similar reports and workshops since  2017) by Michael Carney, long-time adman, author, media director and strategic planning director. Michael is also the creator/training director of Netmarketing Courses, which provides online training across a wide range of digital marketing disciplines.